Electronic agreement data management architecture with blockchain distributed ledger

Abstract

A distributed ledger is maintained in accordance with an enterprise. The distributed ledger includes a plurality of nodes such that one or more entities internal to the enterprise and one or more entities external to the enterprise each have access to at least one of the plurality of nodes. Electronic agreements (for example, product/service licenses) between at least a portion of the one or more entities internal to the enterprise and at least a portion of the one or more entities external to the enterprise are managed in association with the distributed ledger. Management includes generating and recording transactions associated with the electronic agreements on the distributed ledger to enable the one or more entities internal to the enterprise and the one or more entities external to the enterprise permissioned access to one or more of the recorded transactions.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A method comprising:
 maintaining a distributed ledger in accordance with an enterprise, wherein the distributed ledger comprises a plurality of ledger nodes, the plurality of ledger nodes comprising a first set of ledger nodes associated with one or more entities of the enterprise and a second set of ledger nodes associated with one or more third party entities; and 
 managing, via the distributed ledger, negotiation of an electronic agreement between at least a portion of the first set of ledger nodes and at least a portion of the second set of ledger nodes, wherein managing further comprises:
 provisioning a set of electronic agreement microservices accessible via the distributed ledger, the set of electronic agreement microservices comprises:
 a first subset of electronic agreement microservices, accessible by the first set of ledger nodes, for requesting one or more licenses associated with at least one of one or more products and one or more services provided by the one or more third party entities; 
 a second subset of electronic agreement microservices, accessible by the second set of ledger nodes associated with the one or more third party entities, for bidding on license requests by the one or more entities of the enterprise for the one or more licenses associated with said at least one of the one or more products and the one or more services provided by the one or more third party entities; and 
 a third subset of electronic agreement microservices, accessible by both the first set of ledger nodes and the second set of ledger nodes, for providing event notifications related to negotiation of the electronic agreement; 
 
 recording transactions associated with the electronic agreement on the distributed ledger received from the set of electronic agreement microservices, wherein each of the transactions is generated by at least one of: one or more of the first set of ledger nodes; and one or more of the second set of ledger nodes; and 
 controlling access to at least a portion of the transactions generated by the first set of ledger nodes by encrypting at least a portion of the transactions generated by the first set of ledger nodes to prevent access by the second set of ledger nodes to the encrypted portion of the transactions generated by the first set of ledger nodes; and 
 
 wherein the steps are performed by one or more processing devices each comprising a processor coupled to a memory executing program code. 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising utilizing the first and second subsets of the set of electronic agreement microservices to generate at least one licensing transaction for a given one of the one or more licenses which is associated with at least a given one of one or more products and one or more services provided by a given one of the one or more third party entities, and further comprising utilizing the third subset of the set of electronic agreement microservices to generate an event notification allowing a given one of the one or more entities of the enterprise to use at least the given one of the one or more products and the one or more services. 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising utilizing the set of electronic agreement microservices to generate one or more transactions enabling at least one of create, modify, retrieve, and return of a given smart contract to be recorded or already recorded in the distributed ledger by utilizing logic associated with one or more electronic contract functions. 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising utilizing the second subset of the set of electronic agreement microservices to generate one or more transactions enabling at least a given one of the one or more third party entities to bid on a license request by utilizing logic associated with one or more electronic contract functions. 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 1 , wherein managing further comprises performing a check for duplicate electronic agreements recorded on the distributed ledger. 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 1 , wherein managing further comprises providing a user interface for accessing the set of electronic agreement microservices. 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 1 , further comprising utilizing the third subset of the set of electronic agreement microservices to send one or more notifications of events related to one or more of the transactions recorded on the distributed ledger to at least a given one of the one or more entities of the enterprise and at least a given one of the one or more third party entities. 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the distributed ledger is a blockchain distributed ledger. 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 1 , comprising representing a given transaction recorded on the distributed ledger with a data structure comprising a set of fields specifying metadata about the given transaction comprising one or more of a transaction identifier, a transaction description, an event type, a time stamp, a cryptographic function, a consensus protocol status, and a version identifier. 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 1 , comprising representing a given transaction recorded on the distributed ledger with a data structure comprising a set of fields specifying metadata about a given one of the one or more third party entities comprising one or more of a third party entity identifier, a third party entity name, address data, a company identifier, and search criteria associated with the given third party entity. 
     
     
       11. An article of manufacture comprising a non-transitory processor-readable storage medium having stored therein program code of one or more software programs, wherein the program code when executed by at least one processing device causes said at least one processing device to perform the steps of:
 maintaining a distributed ledger in accordance with an enterprise, wherein the distributed ledger comprises a plurality of ledger nodes, the plurality of ledger nodes comprising a first set of ledger nodes associated with one or more entities of the enterprise and a second set of ledger nodes associated with one or more third party entities; and 
 managing, via the distributed ledger, negotiation of an electronic agreement between at least a portion of the first set of ledger nodes and at least a portion of the second set of ledger nodes, wherein managing further comprises:
 provisioning a set of electronic agreement microservices accessible via the distributed ledger, the set of electronic agreement microservices comprises:
 a first subset of electronic agreement microservices, accessible by the first set of ledger nodes, for requesting one or more licenses associated with at least one of one or more products and one or more services provided by the one or more third party entities; 
 a second subset of electronic agreement microservices, accessible by the second set of ledger nodes associated with the one or more third party entities, for bidding on license requests by the one or more entities of the enterprise for the one or more licenses associated with said at least one of the one or more products and the one or more services provided by the one or more third party entities; and 
 a third subset of electronic agreement microservices, accessible by both the first set of ledger nodes and the second set of ledger nodes, for providing event notifications related to negotiation of the electronic agreement; 
 
 recording transactions associated with the electronic agreement on the distributed ledger received from the set of electronic agreement microservices, wherein each of the transactions is generated by at least one of: one or more of the first set of ledger nodes; and one or more of the second set of ledger nodes; and 
 controlling access to at least a portion of the transactions generated by the first set of ledger nodes by encrypting at least a portion of the transactions generated by the first set of ledger nodes to prevent access by the second set of ledger nodes to the encrypted portion of the transactions generated by the first set of ledger nodes. 
 
 
     
     
       12. The article of manufacture of  claim 11 , wherein the program code when executed by said at least one processing device further causes said at least one processing device to perform the step of utilizing the set of electronic agreement microservices to generate one or more transactions enabling at least one of create, modify, retrieve, and return of a given smart contract to be recorded or already recorded in the distributed ledger by utilizing logic associated with one or more electronic contract functions. 
     
     
       13. The article of manufacture of  claim 11 , wherein the program code when executed by said at least one processing device further causes said at least one processing device to perform the step of utilizing the second subset of the set of electronic agreement microservices to generate one or more transactions enabling at least a given one of the one or more third party entities to bid on a license request by utilizing logic associated with one or more electronic contract functions. 
     
     
       14. A system comprising:
 one or more processing devices including a plurality of processors operatively coupled to one or more memories and in communication via a network configured for: 
 maintaining a distributed ledger in accordance with an enterprise, wherein the distributed ledger comprises a plurality of ledger nodes, the plurality of ledger nodes comprising a first set of ledger nodes associated with one or more entities of the enterprise and a second set of ledger nodes associated with one or more third party entities; and 
 managing, via the distributed ledger, negotiation of an electronic agreement between at least a portion of the first set of ledger nodes and at least a portion of the second set of ledger nodes, wherein managing further comprises:
 provisioning a set of electronic agreement microservices accessible via the distributed ledger, the set of electronic agreement microservices comprises:
 a first subset of electronic agreement microservices, accessible by the first set of ledger nodes, for requesting one or more licenses associated with at least one of one or more products and one or more services provided by the one or more third party entities; 
 a second subset of electronic agreement microservices, accessible by the second set of ledger nodes associated with the one or more third party entities, for bidding on license requests by the one or more entities of the enterprise for the one or more licenses associated with said at least one of the one or more products and the one or more services provided by the one or more third party entities; and 
 a third subset of electronic agreement microservices, accessible by both the first set of ledger nodes and the second set of ledger nodes, for providing event notifications related to negotiation of the electronic agreement; 
 
 recording transactions associated with the electronic agreement on the distributed ledger received from the set of electronic agreement microservices, wherein each of the transactions is generated by at least one of: one or more of the first set of ledger nodes; and one or more of the second set of ledger nodes; and 
 controlling access to at least a portion of the transactions generated by the first set of ledger nodes by encrypting at least a portion of the transactions generated by the first set of ledger nodes to prevent access by the second set of ledger nodes to the encrypted portion of the transactions generated by the first set of ledger nodes. 
 
 
     
     
       15. The system of  claim 14 , wherein the one or more processing devices are further configured for utilizing the set of electronic agreement microservices to generate one or more transactions enabling at least one of create, modify, retrieve, and return of a given smart contract to be recorded or already recorded in the distributed ledger by utilizing logic associated with one or more electronic contract functions. 
     
     
       16. The system of  claim 14 , wherein the one or more processing devices are further configured for utilizing the second subset of the set of electronic agreement microservices to generate one or more transactions enabling at least a given one of the one or more third party entities to bid on a license request by utilizing logic associated with one or more electronic contract functions. 
     
     
       17. The system of  claim 14 , wherein managing further comprises performing a check for duplicate smart contracts recorded on the distributed ledger. 
     
     
       18. The system of  claim 14 , wherein managing further comprises providing a user interface for accessing the set of electronic agreement microservices. 
     
     
       19. The system of  claim 14 , wherein the one or more processing devices are further configured for utilizing the third subset of the set of electronic agreement microservices to send one or more notifications of events related to one or more of the transactions recorded on the distributed ledger to at least a given one of the one or more entities of the enterprise and at least a given one of the one or more third party entities. 
     
     
       20. The system of  claim 14 , wherein the distributed ledger is a blockchain distributed ledger.